UK Conservatives Call Probe of US Spy Network 'Witch Hunt'

London (CNSNews.com) - Britain's opposition Conservative Party said Wednesday a decision by the European Parliament to investigate allegations of US industrial espionage was a reflection of a "political witch hunt" by anti-US elements in Europe.

"Anti-American members of the European Parliament are being used to put our special intelligence relationship with the United States on trial," said the party's spokesman on foreign affairs, Francis Maude.

He was reacting to a decision by EU lawmakers to set up a committee to probe claims that the US has abused a National Security Agency-run global spying network to benefit American companies.

Britain is a part of the reported network, code-named Echelon, and first established during the Cold War.

"European MEPs are trying to drive a wedge between Britain and the United States," Maude continued, and called on Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to condemn the decision.

The committee will, over the next eight or so months investigate whether Echelon exists, and if so whether its reported capacity to monitor billions of communications transmitted via satellite has damaged European businesses.

It will also look at ways in which individuals' privacy can be protected from spying of this nature.

Lawmakers were divided over how to tackle the issue, which one far-right French deputy called an "Anglo-Saxon Calvinist" conspiracy against Europe. Some wanted an inquiry empowered to call witnesses, but eventually the legislature voted in favor of a "temporary committee" with limited powers.

Portuguese deputy Carlos Coehlo, who is expected to head the committee, said: "In addition to wanting to distinguish between what is real and what is fantasy, the commission will also try to ascertain how European citizens can see their privacy safeguarded."

Maude was scathing of French lawmakers for spearheading criticism of Echelon.

"For the French to accuse others of running an intelligence service without democratic control is laughable," he said. "Who sunk the Rainbow Warrior?" French intelligence agents blew up the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, in a New Zealand harbor in 1985. The environmental activists were protesting French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

Tuesday, France launched a judicial inquiry into claims that the US has used Echelon to benefit American firms bidding for lucrative contracts against European rivals.

The system is said to use listening stations located mostly in the US and UK, and to be able to intercept massive numbers of phone, fax, data and email communications transmitted worldwide via satellite each day.

Both the US and Britain have denied conducting commercial espionage through Echelon, which also involves Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

French state prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dintilhac will undertake a preliminary investigation into the workings of the network, a spokesman announced Tuesday, adding that the probe would not necessarily lead to legal action.

At Dintilhac's request, France's counter-intelligence organization, DST, reportedly carried out a preliminary investigation into whether the monitoring could be construed as having been "harmful to the vital interests of the nation."

A French lawmaker had urged a judicial inquiry, claiming French citizens and companies were being prejudiced by Echelon.

Earlier this year, Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou told the French parliament that Echelon had apparently been used to spy on commercial rivals to major American corporations involved in bidding wars.

She urged French businesses to be especially alert, and said vital information should never be contained in communications, especially those transmitted via satellite.

The European Parliament has considered a report claiming that Echelon spying had resulted in the European consortium Airbus losing out to Boeing Corp. in a 1993-94 bid for a $6 billion aircraft contract with the Saudi national carrier.

The French communication firm Thomson-CFS lost a radar contract in Brazil two years later to the American Raytheon Corp., again allegedly after the NSA intercepted communications relating to the deal.

A former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey, has confirmed that companies suspected of bribery and corruption and sanctions-busting have been monitored.

He said the US discovered that Airbus representatives had been offering bribes to Saudi officials at the time the aircraft contract was being considered.

'Political agenda'

"US intelligence agencies are not tasked to engage in industrial espionage or obtain trade secrets for the benefit of any US company or companies," former State Department spokesman James Rubin said earlier this year.

Lawmakers in the British Conservative Party have suggested there may be a broader anti-US agenda behind the dispute.

One Conservative member of the European Parliament, Daniel Hannan, said the extraordinary sharing of intelligence resources among the US and its English-speaking allies resulted in "great paranoia among the kind of European federalist who sees the destiny of the EU to challenge the hegemony of the US."

Another Conservative Euro-MP, Timothy Kirkhope, added: "It would be convenient for some people with certain agendas to try and drive a wedge in what is a very important relationship [between the US and Britain]."

"There are people with [European] federalist or integrationist plans whom I think would like to weaken, if they can, the strong alliance between ourselves and the Americans."

"I think there are reasons to believe there is some domestic policy in France that would be advantaged if such a thing could be achieved," Kirkhope added, noting the leading role of the French in protesting against the alleged spying.

Whatever the case, the civil liberties concerns about communications interception on a massive scale have prompted US congressmen, led by Georgia Republican Bob Barr, to call for an inquiry. Congressional hearings are scheduled for later this year.

Barr has accused the NSA of "invading the privacy of American citizens." British lawmakers, who have been urging the Blair government to come clean, voiced similar concerns.